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New Athletics Visual Identity and Mascot

Help us create a new athletics visual identity and a mascot for our community!

This year, 2024, is Macalester’s 150th anniversary. Macalester was chartered in 1874 and since then has become a community that lives its mission. Our roots are strong and the people who make up our community care deeply about the world around them. 

What’s missing is a symbol of what that spirit looks like. Our goal is to create a new visual identity and mascot for the Scots based on Macalester’s current branding guidelines. 

A college mascot is certainly used for athletics but it’s also a symbol of pride for the whole community. It’s the emblematic of a place.  Over the years, there have been a variety of animals (dogs, pigs, ducks) that were called the mascot. The actual costumed “Mac the Scot” came about in 2005. Mac the Scot, while loved by some, doesn’t represent the full breadth of our community or our athletics program. Our goal is to create a visual identity for all Scots.

Guiding Principles

The mascot committee has created a set of guiding principles to help us decide together what the Scot’s mascot should look like:

  • Embodies a fierce and competitive spirit
  • Unifies the campus and larger community
  • Relevant across generations to Macalester experience or history
  • Works equally well for women’s and men’s sports teams
  • Can translate well visually
  • Is unique among our peer set and is not an established mark outside of our peer set

Timeline

JanuaryCommunity engagement – Share your ideas with the committee by completing our online poll.
Focus groups will be held.
FebruaryYour ideas are in. Take a look at the ones that met the guiding principles.
March–AprilDesign phase
OctoberMascot debuts at MacFest

Committee Members

Co-chairs

  • Donnie Brooks, Athletics
  • Julie Hogan, Communications & Marketing

Committee

  • Abe Woldeslassie ’08, Staff, Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Staff
  • Louisa Bradtmiller, Faculty, Environmental Studies
  • Ron Brisbois, Faculty, Chemistry
  • Michael Skoien ’73, M Club Member
  • Abby Dos Santos ’01, Alumni Board, President
  • Anna Sene ’24, Student
  • Justin Potts ’25, Student
  • Mariah Loeffler-Kemp ’24, Student, MCSG President